it’s been a funny LA couple of nights. tuesday i went with joe and dan to a ‘master storytellers’ event at the arclight in hollywood… the empire strikes back on the big beautiful screen, with some Q and A with director irvin kershner. he had some funny stories about wrangling yoda and r2d2, and revealed what i didn’t even know (shame on me, i thought i was real fan) about the shooting. lucas wasn’t even there. kershner did it all then came back with a cut to show ol’ georgie. our immediate conclusion: no wonder the new ones suck. george doesn’t know shit about how to direct or instruct actors (right, we all could tell that, but this is the support!), just write fantasy epics and innovate technical stuff like sound design. damn, i hope that cool ass trailer (which they also showed) isn’t another prelude to a let down.

then last night i went out for a long overdue coffee and conversation with good old jen. we tried to roll up to insomnia, but literally every seat was taken, 90% of the people with laptops utilizing the free wifi. it was a creepy combination of a university library and a twilight zone episode, like we had stumbled into a place we were unwelcome — cut to a dozen faces eerily lit by the glow of their monitors snapping up to stare at us deciding not to order and just leaving. sorry for invading, weirdos. but it actually worked out because we went to starbucks where it was quiet and fine and a random girl stopped me to ask if my braid shirt was for “the band braid, like from chicago?” and i was really excited for her to be the first to ever ask me that question and respond positively. plus the cocoa is pretty good and jen is one person i never seem to run out of things to talk about with; we could go on forever and would have if the place didn’t close. i LOVE those kinds friends, they really are indispensable.

oh, and on the way to and from the car we walked past some salon party or something on beverly with a bunch of models crowding up the sidewalk being all blonde and shit and waiting for the valets to bring their cars around while on cell phones and wearing too much makeup. it was like wading through really hot underbrush to get back to where we parked, only without the machete, obviously.